Users, Companies, Teams, and Financial Accounts Explained
Creating a New Team and/or Company
All Users (except affiliated contractors) will now see a button called 'Create a New Team' in the beige team bar in My oDesk. Why would you want to create a team? There are a lot of reasons really. Perhaps you're a provider who wants to become a buyer, too. Create a Team and you'll be able to start posting jobs immediately. Or maybe you're a buyer who hires a lot of providers, and you don't want them all to share the same SVN repository. Create new Teams and you'll be able to keep them separated.
There are a few key terms (User, Company, Team, and Financial Account) that you really need to understand before using the self-service team creation feature. Before you go back to the Create a Team form, please take the time to read this entire article. The way oDesk uses these terms now is very different from how we had been using them in the past.
User
What is a User?
A User in an individual person. Each User has one, and only one, unique User ID on oDesk. A User may have a provider profile, assignment history, and feedback score, and may be the owner or member of one or more Teams. When Users are buying services from others, they are called Buyers, or Hiring Managers. When Users are selling their services, they are called Providers, who either work and earn money on their own (as Independent Contractors) or on behalf of a Provider Company (as Affiliated Contractors).
Can I create a new User?
No, a person should never have more than one User! Thanks to "Create Team", there's no need to have a separate buyer and provider User ID. In fact, if you currently have two IDs for this reason, please contact support to combine your IDs. That said, a User ID should never be used by more than one person. So if you've been doing that, it's time to sign up as separate Users.
Company
What is a Company?
Companies are entities - brick & mortar or virtual - with profiles, assignment histories, and feedback scores. Note that each Company actually has 2 histories and feedback scores - one as Buyer and another as Provider. A Company always has at least one Team, and can contain multiple Teams. A Company has an Owner who is responsible for it, but ownership can be changed from one User to another. You would need to submit a help ticket to transfer ownership of your Company.
Why would I want to create a new Company?
You must create a Company so that you can have Teams. You create your first Company and Team simultaneously during Buyer registration or the first time a Provider uses Create a Team.
There are very few cases when you should create more than one Company. You do not need to create a new Company just to separate your finances or to act both a Buyer and Provider! You would need to submit a help ticket to create another Company.
Here's an example where the User would need more than one Company:
Bob the buyer works for QWE for his day job. Part of his job for QWE is to hire oDesk providers to do development and graphics work. So he's the owner of the buyer Company QWE on oDesk. But, Bob would also like to hire a virtual assistant and marketing writer to help him with a side venture he's been pursuing in his free time. Bob should not create a new User on oDesk; he just to create a new Company. This will keep his personal hiring history and feedback separate from his day job. Bob will be able to log in with one User ID to control them both!
What does a Company look like in the marketplace?
One way to think about it is: a Company is a profile. Here is an example:
Acme
Acme > Development
Acme > Marketing
Acme > QA
Here, there are four teams, all part of the Company called 'Acme'. If you posted a job in Acme > Marketing, the "Job Facts" page (where providers can see the oDesk assignment history and feedback of the Buyer) will show the 'Acme' profile, but it will aggregate all assignment history from all four teams. Let's say each of these four teams has billed 250 oDesk hours; the combined profile will show 1,000 hours billed.
Team
What is a Team?
A Team is a work group that belongs to a Company. When you create a Team, you create a new Team Room, and everything that goes along with it - a mailing list, SVN repository, Bugzilla. A Team may have its own Financial Account or share a Financial Account with other Teams with the same owner. A Team can (and normally should) share the owner's Financial Account instead of creating a new one. Users can be invited to join Teams as admins, hiring or staffing managers, and/or affiliated contractors. Users can also be hired into Teams as providers. You can't have a Team without a Company, so you'll automatically create a Team and a new Company if you're not already a Company Owner.
What is a Team ID?
Your Team ID identifies your Team in the oDesk system. It's usually a shortened version of your Team Name (or simply numbered Team1, Team2, etc.). Unlike your Team Name, it cannot be changed later. Team members will see YourTeamID (for your first team) or YourMainTeamID:YourNewTeamID (for any additional teams) when they visit your Team Room or log time to your assignment(s) — so choose carefully!
Why would I want to create a new Team?
Buyers may want to create new teams if:
- You want to keep your people separate - separate SVN repositories, separate Bugzilla systems, etc.
- You want your providers working on different projects or for different clients for reporting purposes; you can share a Financial account, but your Account Activity statement will show you your dollars spent in each Team
- You want to bill your work to different credit cards; you can set up separate Financial Accounts for each Team and get billed separately
- You want to hire the same provider for multiple, simultaneous assignments - separate Team rooms makes this possible
- You want to organize your people into separate groups for any reason at all!
Providers will want to create new teams if:
- You want to create your own Provider Company and invite ACs to earn money for you
- You want to become a Buyer
How do you plan to use this team?
- If you want to hire providers to do work for you, you plan to use this Team as a Buyer.
- If you want to invite Users to work for you as Affiliated Contractors, you plan to use this Team as a Provider Company.
- If you're not sure, or want to do both, you can choose to Decide Later. You can go to the Team Admin page to adjust the privileges when you're ready.
Important Note: If you are currently a provider with active assignments and you choose to create a Provider Company, you will become a non-exclusive Affiliated Contractor. Click here to learn more.
Financial Account
What is a Financial Account?
A Financial Account contains withdrawal methods, payment methods, and transactions. A User's personal Financial Account can be shared with Teams they own. If a Company has multiple Teams, they could all share a Financial Account, some of them could share Financial Accounts and others could have their own Financial Accounts, or they could each have their own Financial Account.
However, separate Financial Accounts are almost never necessary because all our financial and time tracking features allow you to sort and filter the data by Team. If you want to separate your finances, you will probably find that creating a separate Team will be enough.
Why would I want to create a new Financial Account?
We strongly recommend that your Teams share a Financial Account, UNLESS you need to pay for a specific Team with a different credit card. Nearly any other type of financial separation can be accomplished by using reporting and tracking features sorted and/or filtered by Team.
We also encourage current providers to share their personal Financial Accounts with Teams they create so that the money earned as a provider can be used to make payments as a buyer. If you need to prevent that from happening, you'll need to use separate Financial Accounts.